Midnight's Captive (Dark Warriors) (27 page)

Just as he expected, Mindy stomped away, her exit much less dramatic than Aisley’s. But then again, his cousin always had a way with flair.

Jason forgot about Aisley and Mindy as two more people came rushing into the hospital with symptoms of the contagion.

“A prelude to things to come,” he said with a smile as he watched a man collapse on the floor.

*   *   *

Charon reached Dreagan property faster than he expected. Even with it raining. Then again, that’s what happened when he drove like a madman.

He didn’t slow as he pulled onto the one road in and out of Dreagan. The only time his foot came off the gas pedal was when he pressed on the brake to stop the car.

Charon opened his door and stepped out in the rain to find Guy standing before him.

“That was quite an entrance. Do you often practice sliding your vehicles to a halt on gravel?” Guy asked with a cocky grin.

“I doona have time for games. I need to speak to Con.”

Guy’s grin slipped as he motioned Charon to follow him. Charon slammed the Porsche’s door closed and jogged to catch up with Guy.

He expected to be taken to the front entrance as he was before, but instead Charon found himself entering the conservatory.

Charon whistled at the sheer size of the room and all the plants held within. He shook his head, sending droplets of water over everything near him.

“You brought the storm,” Guy said as he, too, shook off the rain. “Follow me.”

Charon was taken through the conservatory and into the front parlor before they started up the stairs. He paused beside the doorway when Guy gave a single knock before opening Con’s office door.

Constantine got to his feet when he spotted Charon. “I didna expect you back quite so soon.”

“A lot has happened since I was here.”

Con took his seat as he motioned for Charon to sit.

Guy poured three glasses of whisky before handing one to Charon. “Does this have to do with the epidemic in Edinburgh?”

Charon tilted back his glass and downed the whisky in one swallow. He normally savored the rich flavor, but all the way to Dreagan, he’d gone over and over in his head his conversation with Laura.

He knew without a doubt she had left MacLeod Castle. That bothered him, but not so much as wondering if she was with Jason or not.

“Charon?” Con urged.

“It is,” Charon answered, pulling his attention to the matter at hand. “I doona know how you know what I am. I’ll tell you anything you want to know as long as you can help us.”

Constantine leaned back in his chair and regarded Charon silently for several minutes. “I know all there is to know of Warriors.”

Charon shook his head, somehow not at all surprised by Con’s response. “Why did you no’ tell me that before?”

“You were no’ ready to hear it,” Guy said as he leaned a shoulder against the wall, his glass of whisky in his hand.

Charon ran a hand through his hair. “Jason Wallace started the epidemic because he learned we had someone studying how
drough
blood affects us as well as why other Warrior blood counters it.”

“A good plan,” Con said.

Charon shrugged. “It wasna my idea. I think this last battle with Jason where I was injured and nothing helped is what spurred this. Wallace has done something to the
drough
blood he’s using. It’s more powerful. It was thought that perhaps it was time we did some experimenting of our own.”

“What have you learned?”

“Nothing. I know we have someone in Edinburgh—”

“Aiden MacLeod,” Guy said. “His father, Quinn, and another Warrior, Galen, is also there.”

Charon leaned his head back to look at the ceiling as he realized just how long Con’s reach was. “Will you tell me how you know all of this?”

“You didna think you were the only magical creature, did you?” Guy asked with a smile. “Arrogant arse.”

Con cleared his throat and cut Guy a look. “The truth is, Charon, there’s a lot about Dreagan you doona know. Yet. We’ve made it our business to keep informed of Druids and Warriors.”

Charon lifted his head and met Con’s dark gaze. “Is there anything that’s happened that you doona know?”

“What happened at Ferness?”

“Jason Wallace. Again.” Charon pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. “He was after Laura. He wanted to kidnap her to make me suffer. Wallace didna count on Laura fighting back, or for someone to interfere.”

Guy slammed his crystal glass down on Con’s desk. “Wallace went after Laura?”

Charon gave a single nod of his head. “I decided to keep watch over her after that. But I didna get her to MacLeod Castle in time. Wallace arrived with his
droughs
.”

“Does he have Laura?” Con asked slowly as he sat forward and braced his forearms on the desk.

“Nay. We took to the forest, but they found her. I went out to fight them so she could get away.” He trailed off as he remembered the feel of her magic.

It had been so … beautiful and pure. The force of it made his soul shudder and beg for more at the same time. No magic had ever felt so perfect.

Guy took the seat next to Charon. “She didna run, did she?”

Charon shook his head. “She stayed. And watched them slowly kill me. I didna know it was her magic that shot from the cabin. One touch of her magic, and it was like the
drough
blood inside me didn’t exist anymore.”

“Damn,” Con murmured. “I didna realize she was a Druid, and one obviously powerful.”

“I’d worked with her for two years and never knew she was a Druid. She says she didna know either, that it was her mother and sister who syphoned her magic from her.”

Con’s lips twisted in anger. “It’s been done before, so it’s plausible if you’re doubting her.”

“Deirdre and Declan have both used others to get inside MacLeod Castle and hurt them. I have to be cautious.”

Guy nodded. “But you believe her, do you no’?”

“Aye. Is it because I want to, or because I can tell she speaks the truth?”

“Use the Druids at the castle to find out,” Con said.

“It may come to that.”

Guy poured them all more whisky. “Finish the story. We need to know what happened in Ferness.”

“She ran after the explosion of the cabin,” Charon said as he swirled the amber liquid in the glass. “Wallace found her before I did, and since I didna know she was a Druid, I hadna told her everything. Jason told her lies and used magic, and she believed everything he told her.”

Guy rubbed the side of his thumbnail against the upholstery of the arm of his chair. “You can no’ fault her for that.”

“Too many times MacLeod Castle has been besieged by spies. I didna want to be blamed for another.”

Con nodded. “So what happened?”

“Laura’s sister was at Ferness waiting for her,” Charon continued. “She took back Laura’s magic. We got Laura to MacLeod Castle, but we doona know if she’s working with Jason or no’. Before I could find out, Aiden called to say Jason had given an ultimatum. He’d stop the plague in Edinburgh if Aiden and Britt turned themselves in to him.”

“They can no’,” Guy said.

Charon shrugged one shoulder. “I know. Which is why I’m here. You offered to be allies. I’m asking for your help now.”

Con scooted back his chair and stood. “First, you need to know what we are. We can no’ just go barreling into a fight like you can. For the most part, you Warriors are able to stay hidden. Though we are powerful in human form, to tap the full potential of our magic, we need to be in our true form.”

“And that would be?” Charon asked.

Con jerked his chin to Guy, who flipped open his phone and pressed a few keys. Charon waited for something to happen, but nothing did.

“You’ll get a better view from here,” Con said, and motioned Charon to the window.

Charon walked around the desk and looked out over the rolling hills. Thousands of sheep and cattle were scattered as far as the eye could see.

He was taking in the beauty when something moved in the low-lying rain clouds. Charon lifted his gaze to see the massive form of a dragon with scales the color of emeralds.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Britt put her hands at her waist and arched her back as she stretched. Her dress was ruined, and her feet cold from kicking off her heels and walking barefoot on the floor. How she wished she had some jeans and a shirt. And socks.

All of it would be better to run in, she mused. She adjusted herself on the stool while thinking over what she had just discovered.

“Everything all right?” Aiden asked.

She turned her head to him, surprised to find him so close when she hadn’t heard him approach. “Yes.”

“I hear a bit of hesitation in your voice,” he said with a lopsided smile. “Why no’ take a break? I know you’re weary.”

Britt shook her head. “It’s only been a few hours. I’ll be all right.”

“Liar.”

She laughed, her eyes fastening on his lips. Lips that had kissed her with such hunger and passion that she was still reeling from it.

“Britt,” Aiden murmured in his deep, husky voice thick with a brogue that made her stomach feel as if butterflies had taken flight inside. “Doona look at me like that.”

She blinked and forced her gaze up to his beautiful green eyes. The desire she saw darkening their depths caused her breathing to ratchet up another notch. “Then don’t be so damned tempting.”

“Ah, lass.” His fingers threaded into her hair while his thumb caressed her bottom lip. “You’re the tempting one.”

Britt knew if she didn’t stop them, they were likely to start kissing again. With so much at stake—not to mention his father in the room—it wasn’t a prudent idea.

She licked her lips and turned her head away, missing his touch instantly. There was no denying she was more than a little freaked at all she had seen and experienced that night, but none of it diminished the incredible, crushing desire being near Aiden caused.

“I’ve found something,” she said.

Aiden’s stance shifted as he leaned against the table. “Tell me.”

She glanced to find the desire gone from his eyes, replaced with an intensity that made him who he was. Appealing, daring, and fierce. “I’ve found an enzyme.”

“Shite,” Aiden said as he turned to his father and Galen. “Both of you might want to see this.”

As soon as Galen and Quinn reached her, Britt told them what she had just explained to Aiden.

“I’m no’ a scholar,” Galen said. “I understand that you’ve found something important, but how does that relate to us?”

Britt looked at each of them before her gaze came to rest on Aiden. “It means, I’ve found a way to combat the
drough
blood when it reaches a Warrior’s bloodstream.”

“How?” Quinn asked.

If Britt thought there would be a celebration for her discovery, she’d been dead wrong. She pulled the sample from the microscope and held it in front of her. “It’s the unique nature of the enzyme that causes the
drough
blood to essentially begin attacking a Warrior by reaching all the organs through the blood.”

“Unfortunately, most of us know that part,” Galen said with a frown.

Britt could only imagine how painful it must feel after witnessing it through a microscope. She cleared her throat and continued. “Let me show you.”

She placed another slide beneath the microscope and moved so they could peer into the machine. “This is a sample of your blood, Quinn.”

Once the three of them had seen it, Britt then put a sample of
drough
blood under the microscope for them to see. When they had looked their fill, she got a fresh slide and put a drop of Quinn’s blood on it before adding a drop of
drough
blood. Britt hastily put it under the machine and stepped back.

Aiden was the first to look. His face was ashen as he stepped aside and motioned for his father to look.

Quinn was silent for a long time before he straightened. “Holy hell,” he murmured.

“This explains a lot,” Galen said as he looked through the microscope.

Britt nodded. “What you’re seeing is how the
drough
blood consumes Quinn’s blood. Now, let me add Galen’s sample.”

Aiden watched as Britt moved with efficient speed, taking the slide out of the microscope and adding in more blood before replacing the slide.

“Here, you’ll be able to see what more Warrior blood does to the attacking
drough
blood,” she said, and stepped back to give them room.

Aiden motioned for his father to look first. Quinn’s brow was furrowed when he stepped away to allow Galen a chance to view it, and then it was Aiden’s turn.

He watched, mesmerized, as the attacking
drough
blood was stopped in its tracks. “I doona understand,” he said as he lifted his head. “Why couldna the blood already within the Warrior no’ stop the
drough
blood?”

“I suspect because it doesn’t have time with the
drough
blood attacking it,” Britt said. “New, fresh Warrior blood is too much for the
drough
blood. Each Warrior has a god inside him giving him immortality and powers, so it’s no wonder the blood helps other Warriors.”

Galen was the first to speak into the silence. “Can we isolate it, or can we create something to counteract the
drough
blood?”

“That’s what I’m working on,” Britt said.

“The X90s bullets they use are filled with
drough
blood,” Quinn said. “We doona stand a chance against them. Is there any way to have something to counter them before we get hit?”

Aiden watched Britt’s lips compress as she began to think. He could practically see the wheels turning in her head.

“Possibly,” she said. “I’ll need more time, though.”

Aiden jerked when he heard an explosion somewhere in the building. “We need to leave. Now!”

Quinn and Galen instantly shifted into their Warrior forms as Aiden began destroying Britt’s samples.

“What are you doing?” she demanded.

Aiden pushed her hands away when she tried to stop him. “It’s Jason. I can get you more samples, Britt. We can no’ leave anything for Wallace to find.”